Having Qiu Lingshan and the others help Leng Leng and Duanmu Yu over to a quiet, open patch of ground to sit down, Wei Zhao immediately took his seat and began healing the two women. The frostbite inflicted by the shattered ice-prison mirror was troublesome indeed; even a Great Restoration Pill would have little effect, and the only remedy was slow nourishment through true qi.

Leng Leng was manageable enough—after all, she was the very source of all that freezing damage, and even if she had been frostbitten herself, it could hardly be severe. Duanmu Yu was another matter. Not only was her frostbite grave, but the more vexing problem was her state of extreme weakness; a single careless misstep in channeling true qi could easily injure her further, and taking a Great Restoration Pill would be even worse.

Fortunately, Wei Zhao's spiritual sense was far keener than it had been back on Cloud Terrace Island, and his control over true qi was finer and more precise as well. Otherwise, he truly would have been at a loss.

Sensing the faint, almost imperceptible yet unmistakably real changes within her body, Duanmu Yu's eyes flew wide open in disbelief—this Wei Zhao actually possessed such miraculous healing skill!

"Don't move about, or don't blame me if your true qi runs wild," Wei Zhao said with a frown.

"S-sorry..." Duanmu Yu's face flushed red; she hurriedly suppressed her shock and did her utmost to keep her body still.

A short while later, Leng Leng's internal injuries were no longer of any concern. After a word to Wei Zhao, she went off to one side to continue recovering on her own, while Duanmu Yu's injuries had only just begun to mend—barely a small fraction restored.

"There's a question I'm rather curious about. I wonder if you could answer it for me?" Wei Zhao said suddenly in the midst of the treatment.

"Hm?" Duanmu Yu was taken aback, then caught on. "So that's your real purpose in healing me?"

"No need to be tense. It's only a question of common knowledge." Wei Zhao smiled. "Withered Leaf Returns to Spring must be a technique that exacts a heavy price, no? Could you tell me about it?"

"It draws out one's life force in advance, and adds three months of weakness on top," Duanmu Yu said without concealment. There was nothing to hide in this; anyone of even modest standing in the Primal Alliance knew it perfectly well.

"And the effect? Paying such a price, you must have recovered to your peak, surely—so why does it not look that way to me?" Wei Zhao pressed on.

"You noticed?" Duanmu Yu was startled.

"Obviously. If you truly had recovered to your peak, why would you have been so cautious and restrained against Leng Leng? I'd say it was because your true qi was insufficient, and so you didn't dare use any powerful moves rashly," Wei Zhao reasoned.

Even by his own standards, One Leaf Foretells Autumn paired with a Leaf Like a Mountain was a combination both simple and impossible to counter. Never mind the Foundation Establishment stage—it would be highly effective even at the Golden Core stage, and dealing with Leng Leng in that state should have been no trouble at all.

Duanmu Yu was silent for a moment, then said slowly, "Since that's the case, I won't hide it. What I used was not the complete version of Withered Leaf Returns to Spring, so my condition did not return to its peak—only less than half of it was restored."

"I see. Then the period of weakness won't last three months either, I take it—will you be able to make it to the Primal Trial?" Wei Zhao understood at once. This Duanmu Yu was indeed not the sort of woman who lived solely for her sect's honor. To have used an incomplete Withered Leaf Returns to Spring in such a situation proved not only her exceptional aptitude but also the quickness of her mind.

"If all goes well, I should," Duanmu Yu nodded. This Primal Trial came but once in a thousand years; she did not wish to miss it on any account.

"Then I wish you every success." As he spoke, Wei Zhao suddenly rose and said mildly, "The frostbite has all been cleared away. What remains can only be left to you to recover from slowly. I'll take my leave."

"Oh, thank you." Duanmu Yu felt out the condition of her body; sure enough, apart from her lingering extreme weakness, everything else was normal again. She was both startled and delighted, and seeing that Wei Zhao was about to go, she asked, "By the way, why did you help me? Have you taken a fancy to me?"

"Pff!" Wei Zhao stumbled in his step, nearly choking on her words. This woman was a little too blunt, wasn't she?

"What? Is it not so?" Duanmu Yu was instead taken aback. To her mind, since Wei Zhao had gone out of his way to show her goodwill and volunteered to heal her, he must surely have some motive—he could hardly have done it truly just to ask that question of common knowledge. Apart from her looks, what else could he have taken a fancy to?

The words "her looks" sat rather oddly with Duanmu Yu's mannish bearing, yet one thing could not be denied: she was indeed a striking and unconventional beauty, and there was no shortage of suitors for her in the little world of the Primal Alliance. It was only that no one had ever been able to catch her eye.

"Uh..." Under her gaze, Wei Zhao instead felt somewhat embarrassed. He thought it over, then said, "If I said it was to find a chance to steal a little of Withered Leaf Returns to Spring for myself, would you believe me?"

Though the words were mostly in jest, after witnessing the heaven-defying effect of Withered Leaf Returns to Spring, it would be a lie to say Wei Zhao's heart had not stirred at all. True, the technique carried an outrageous aftereffect, but the mighty effect of instantly restoring one to peak condition could still prove very useful at certain times.

Still, for Wei Zhao, whose jade pendant space supplied him with an endless stream of spiritual qi, the value of Withered Leaf Returns to Spring was not quite so great; it could at best count as a decent card to hold in reserve. Of course, its value for research was considerable.

"You want to learn Withered Leaf Returns to Spring?" Duanmu Yu gave Wei Zhao a serious look, mused for a moment, then shook her head. "This is the ultimate technique of our Leaf Spirit Sect; it cannot be taught to outsiders at will. Moreover, mastering it demands a very peculiar kind of aptitude—even among Leaf Spirit Sect disciples, few manage to cultivate it."

"Oh, then never mind. It was only a passing whim. Farewell." As he spoke, Wei Zhao left her with nothing but his receding figure.

"This Wei Zhao... truly is a hard one to figure out..." Duanmu Yu said thoughtfully.

Though the duel between Leng Leng and Duanmu Yu had dragged on for quite some time, this fifth round of matches had very few bouts to begin with; basically every group had only two or three duels, and most ended extremely quickly. One thing worth noting was that in the mid-Foundation Establishment group there was another familiar face to Wei Zhao—Fei Yangnian.